Ninety bags of organic insulation were installed, with difficulty, in the floor of the attic, to keep heat from escaping through the roof. Before insulation went in, an original, non-working chimney was removed from attic floor, brick by brick, filling 30 buckets.

90 bags of insulation were hauled up to double-insulate attic floor. This should help when oil prices go through the roof.

Insulation is allergy-free, non-chemical, organic fiber. Same natural cotton that's used to make blue jeans.

South-facing windows in the den have had to be taken apart and sashes repaired. The house was unsettled here and there were gaps below the sills. "You could see right out below the windows," Ellen says. She and Rob speculate that perhaps a limb of the tulip tree fell and hit the back of the house, breaking windows and unsettling this part of the house a long time ago. The sash fixes and replacement hardware were about 100 years old.

No, we're not decorating with a polka-dot theme. It's prep for new plaster. First, the walls and ceilings must be "buttoned" with pins to secure old plaster that's broken away from the lathing. The plasterers return this week to start on the first floor.

Part of the joy of buying a place in Salisbury is taking part in the local fun. The annual Ice Carving competition was this weekend, and we admired sculptors' impressive flights of fancy. Then, we wandered over to watch the 86-year old Ski Jumping Championship which attracted Junior Olympic hopefuls from as far away as Park City, Utah. The town calendar is full of annual events like these to encourage real life interactions and help sustain a community in the non-virtual world.

The original front doors have been stored in the basement since the renovation of 1915, when the double doors were removed in favor of a more "modern" look. Here's how the double doors looked seven years prior, when Malcolm Day Rudd and his family posed for this picture. We mean to restore the doors to their original place of honor. More portraits of the family and the house in its glory can be found here, thanks to the generosity of Malcolm's grandson, Charles Keil.

1908. Malcolm Day Rudd and family at Holleywood's entrance. photo courtesy Charles Keil

who we are

We are a couple of Upper West Siders from NYC who never set out to buy an old mansion in Connecticut. But the moment we walked through its massive front door, we were smitten. The info on this site is earnestly cobbled from a variety of sources, including the web. Please let us know if we've gotten something wrong, or if there's a story about Holleywood you'd like to share.